Around Mérida: which town is in which municipality

Which municipality are you in?

Go by the deed and the cédula catastral (the cadastral record). Listings stretch names, and around the city three layers get mixed up.

• The city of Mérida is one INEGI locality: 921,771 people in 2020, or 92.6% of the municipality.
• The municipality of Mérida wraps around it, with 165 more localities and 73,358 people in 2020. The 47 comisarías and subcomisarías sit in this layer.
• The metro area is a group of 13 municipalities under Decreto 165/2026. It moves no boundary.

The municipality sets your predial (property tax) table and discounts, the ISAI transfer tax, building permits and local rules. A house in Temozón Norte and a house in Conkal can both be advertised as "north Mérida" and still answer to different town halls.

INEGI counted 1,094 people in the locality of Temozón Norte in 2020; the label in advertising covers far more ground. Caucel the locality had 8,823 people in 2,257 inhabited dwellings, which cannot include the Ciudad Caucel development beside it.

Place by place: rank, municipality, distance, population

Municipality and rank come from INEGI's 2020 file and the Ayuntamiento's list. Dir. is the compass direction from the Plaza Grande. Km is our road estimate from the same point, with no traffic. Routes come from the transit agency's maps and dated press; "Unconfirmed" means no map names the place, which does not prove there is no service.

* Ayuntamiento figure, year not stated. These four absorbed pueblos have no row of their own in the 2020 census.

The other 27 places on the list are also in the municipality of Mérida:

• North: Xcunyá, Tamanché, Sac-Nicté, Dzidzilché, Kikteil, Santa María Yaxché.
• West and northwest: Tixcacal, Cosgaya, Noc Ac, Chalmuch, Susulá, Cheumán, San Antonio Hool, Suytunchén.
• South: San Pedro Chimay, Yaxnic, Tahdzibichén, Tzacalá, Texán Cámara, Dzoyaxché, San Ignacio Tesip, Petac, Hunxectamán.
• East and northeast: Oncán, Tixcuytún, Santa María Chí, Yaxché Casares.

The Spanish version of this page prints all 47 by zone with the same columns.

What is a comisaría?

A comisaría is a sub-municipal district with an elected local representative. Yucatán's Ley de Gobierno de los Municipios, as reformed to 28 July 2026, lists comisarías and subcomisarías among a municipality's internal divisions, next to colonias and fraccionamientos (art. 11).

The line sits at 500 residents (art. 12). A comisaría needs at least 500, basic public services, electricity, drinking water, a building for the municipal authority and basic-education schools. A subcomisaría has fewer than 500. The Ayuntamiento lists 34 of the first and 13 of the second.

The comisario is an auxiliary authority chosen by direct secret vote of residents after each new Ayuntamiento takes office (art. 70). The job is to represent the community, report service needs and look after municipal property (art. 68 Bis). Tax collection is not on that list.

Rank does not follow size: Cholul had 11,745 people in 2020 and remains a comisaría. Excerpts of the municipal Reglamento de Comisarías and the Bando name seven of the Ayuntamiento's comisarías as subcomisarías, among them Temozón Norte. We could read only excerpts, so we follow the Ayuntamiento's page for current rank. The municipal regulation may keep an older list.

Does the Periférico mark the edge of Mérida?

No. The Anillo Periférico Lic. Manuel Berzunza is a road with no legal meaning, about 50 km around according to Por Esto (6 October 2025); our trace on OpenStreetMap comes to about 49 km. Colonias on both sides are in the same municipality, and the ring and the municipal limit are unrelated lines. From the Plaza Grande it sits roughly 5 to 9 km out.

This is our own test against the OpenStreetMap ring, good to a few hundred meters.

The SSP gives a maximum of 90 km/h in the central and left lanes and 80 km/h in the right lane, unless a sign says otherwise (POSTA and Por Esto, 3 May 2026). A planned second ring of about 95 km was a preliminary trace with no start date in October 2024 (POSTA). As of 31 October 2026 we found no confirmed start, so do not buy on it.

The 13 municipalities of the metro area

Since 20 February 2026, Decreto 165/2026 has defined the metro area as Acanceh, Conkal, Chicxulub Pueblo, Hunucmá, Kanasín, Mérida, Progreso, Samahil, Timucuy, Tixkokob, Tixpéhual, Ucú and Umán. We read the operative text in full: it sets no boundaries and no shared budget, and it leaves every municipality's powers alone.

INEGI's Encuesta Intercensal 2025 is a sample, with a margin on every figure except Ucú, which INEGI marks as fully censused. The rises in Kanasín and Conkal hold even at the low end of their intervals. The small falls in Tixkokob and Samahil sit inside the margin, so they do not show those towns lost people. The survey's file has no comisarías, and 2020 stays their latest figure. More in the population guide.

On the coast, Sisal belongs to Hunucmá and Chicxulub Puerto to Progreso.

Who collects your predial (property tax)?

The municipality where the lot sits, whatever the listing says. Mérida's Ley de Hacienda taxes owners and usufructuaries of property "ubicados en el Municipio de Mérida" (art. 41) and defines the tax by that same location (art. 43). A home in Cholul or Caucel pays Mérida, because a comisaría is inside the municipality. A home in Conkal pays Conkal, whose own law works the same way (art. 47).

Buying through a fideicomiso does not change who you pay. Art. 41 also names the parties to a trust: the fideicomitente until the bank transfers the property or its use, and the fideicomisario (the beneficiary) or fiduciario with possession or use. If you live in the house as beneficiary, you are on that list. The buying guide explains how the trust works.

If you rent it out, the base can change. Art. 49 moves the tax to the rent when the art. 51 rate gives more tax than cadastral value: 3% of monthly rent for housing, 5% for other uses. Register the lease within 30 days and give notice within 15 days of its end (art. 50). A hypothetical, on the table consolidated to December 2024: a home with a cadastral value of MX$1.5 million owes MX$3,269 a year, about MX$272 a month. Rented at MX$20,000, 3% is MX$600, so the rent becomes the base.

Eleven of the 13 municipalities have their own ley de hacienda on Congress's list, read on 31 October 2026; Samahil and Tixkokob fall under the state's Ley de Hacienda Municipal, with the same location rule (arts. 11 and 12).

Check it in three steps

1. Ask for the cédula catastral and the deed before you put down a deposit, and read the municipality on them.
2. Confirm it at that Catastro. If the lot is near a limit, ask the neighboring office too.
3. Ask for the latest predial receipt. It should come from the same town hall for the same lot. If the three papers disagree, stop and take them to your notario.

The Mérida-Tixpéhual line

Clause 4 leaves 683.34 ha to Tixpéhual (Tixpéual in the legal text) and 911.46 ha in Mérida. On our reading of the annexed plan these are ejido and private parcels with no named colonias, and the pueblo of Oncán stays on the Mérida side. We measured center points, so that does not clear individual lots. Mérida's limits with Conkal, Timucuy, Yaxkukul and Ucú show no decree on Congress's list as of the same date.

Paying in Mérida, and 2027

You can pay online at merida.gob.mx/predial or in person at the Catastro, the Tesorería, the Palacio Municipal, Plaza Pericenter in Caucel and Plaza Las Américas (POSTA, January 2026). Elsewhere, ask at that town's Tesorería.

The Cabildo approved no predial increase for 2027, the third year running, according to a press release in the Diario de Yucatán (13 October 2026). We did not confirm Congress's approval, and the 2027 discounts and cadastral values were unpublished as of 31 October 2026.

From 16 October to 30 November 2026, fines and surcharges on predial and ISAI debts are waived in full if you pay in one payment (Por Esto, 1 October 2026).

Land and services are separate checks

The municipality tells you nothing about title. In Sitpach, 157 residents recognized as avecindados at a 2017 ejido assembly said regularization of their lots had been blocked for seven years (Por Esto, 21 August 2024); that is the residents' account. In Sierra Papacal, the state says the 223.69 ha expropriated in 1992 were paid for and the 2026 protests have no legal basis (Por Esto, 1 April 2026); only the government's side was reported. Run the ejido check in the buying guide.

Water varies by address too. The Ayuntamiento says it runs systems in the comisarías and has renewed 36 in 29 of them, aiming for 100% by the end of 2026, and Japay also appears in Cholul.

Getting around without a car

Of the 47, 33 appear on a Va y Ven route map or in dated press, and Opichén is still to be confirmed.

A ride costs MX$12 (Ie-Tram R905 costs MX$45), MX$5 for students and seniors, and is free for riders with disabilities. A second trip within 120 minutes is half price and a third is free. Pay with a Va y Ven card, a bank card or an enabled device (Diario de Yucatán, 9 October 2026).

To the neighboring municipalities, the directory lists R54 and R810 for Conkal, R28 and Ie-Tram R902 for Kanasín, and R108, R803 and Ie-Tram R905 and R906 for Umán.

We could not confirm a route for Xcanatún or San José Tzal. None of the agency's 110 route maps names either, and R11's "Fracc. San José Tzal" is a fraccionamiento. The directory is undated and omits R800, R801 and R811, so absence proves little. Check the Va y Ven app or ask the agency before you sign a lease. We did not research colectivos or combis here. See Mérida without a car for the wider picture.

Who each zone suits, on paper

In the north (Temozón Norte, Chablekal, Komchén), every place on our list except Xcanatún appears on a route map, which helps a household with one car. Conkal, often sold as "the north", is another municipality: see the north guide.

In the east, Cholul was the largest comisaría in the 2020 census, and R811 was announced to reach it from 12 October 2026. Buyers near Oncán should check the lot with both Catastros while the Tixpéhual question stays open.

In the west, decide first between the pueblo of Caucel and Ciudad Caucel, which have different routes.

The south (Molas, San José Tzal, Dzununcán, Xmatkuil) suits someone with a car better than someone relying on buses: seven of its 14 places have no confirmed route.

To compare colonias inside the ring, start with the neighborhood map and the best neighborhoods guide. For storm season, read the hurricane checklist.

Names people confuse

• Temozón Norte is in Mérida. Temozón is also a separate municipality near Valladolid.
• Opichén the comisaría (724 people) is inside the ring. The municipality of Opichén is somewhere else.
• Chicxulub Pueblo is a municipality. Chicxulub Puerto is a locality of Progreso.
• Caucel is the old pueblo and Ciudad Caucel a separate fraccionamiento, with the same postal code.
• San Pedro Cholul and Santa Rita Cholul are city colonias, and the comisaría is a different place.
• Teya, the Tren Maya station area, is in Kanasín. A separate municipality is also called Teya.

Postal codes will not settle any of this. Code 97302 covers Komchén, Chablekal, Dzityá, Xcanatún, Sierra Papacal, Temozón Norte, Sac-Nicté and Las Américas.

How we checked this

We matched the Ayuntamiento's undated list against INEGI's 2020 locality file. All kilometers are our OSRM estimates from the Plaza Grande with no traffic. The Ayuntamiento's page gives its own distances, undated and without a method, and 14 differ by 4 km or more: Sitpach 28 km against our 15.7, Molas 12 against 22.6. The gaps run both ways and we could not explain them, so we do not use them.

We print no town-by-town crime ranking: SESNSP counts are municipal, and the third-party copy we read (elcri.men) has a series break in January 2026. For the city, see the crime statistics.